We walked along the Wellington waterfront a little north of Wellington Central (the CBD, or Central Business District) to a strikingly modern large building that houses Te Papa Tongarewa (usually known as “Te Papa”), the (national) Museum of New Zealand. Packed with national treasures, the museum is the most visited museum in Oceania. Its six stories of exhibitions showcase aspects of the country’s diverse art and visual culture, with a large section on the history and culture of the native New Zealanders, the Mãori people.
Te Papa Tongarewa means “container of treasures”. The museum presents the treasures of Aotearoa New Zealand’s land and people, and their stories are told authoritatively and passionately. The museum is built on a unique bicultural partnership that recognizes and celebrates Mãori as tangata whenua – the original people of the land.
Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand) tells the full story of the country, through collections and exhibitions on the art, science, and natural history of New Zealand. It was “created in 1992 when the National Art Gallery and the National Museum merged under a parliamentary act. The name Te Papa Tongarewa translates to “our container of treasured things and people that spring from mother earth here in New Zealand” in Māori… The Te Papa in the 21st century comprises five major collections, focusing on art, history, Mãori taonga (cultural treasures), Pacific cultures, and natural history. The art collection specializes in New Zealand and international painting, sculpture, prints, watercolours, drawings, and photographs; the history division focuses on New Zealand’s cultural heritage but also includes items from Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas, notably relics of James Cook; the Māori taonga section contains taonga, including artifacts and carvings; the Pacific cultures unit comprises historical and contemporary objects from the Pacific Islands; and the natural history collection houses plant and animal specimens.” — www.britannica.com/topic/National-Museum-of-New-Zealand
“Billy Harrison carved these 10 hoe (paddles) to represent Te Waka o Tamarēreti – a series of stars and clusters used in traditional navigation. Each of the first nine hoe corresponds with a verse of the karakia (incantation) on the wall at your left. The tenth hoe represents Hekenukumai – a star named after the master navigator and carver Hekenukumai Busby, who died in 2019. Hoe were primarily used to paddle waka, but they were also weapons and a symbol of journeying. They were highly valued, and often carved and adorned with kõwhaiwhai patterns.” – signage at Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa)
In Māori, iwi roughly means ‘people’ or ‘nation’, and is often translated as “tribe”, or “a confederation of tribes”. The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language and is typically pluralized as such in English.
The Rongomaraeroa marae offers a singular experience within Te Papa and is also unique within Aotearoa; it is Te Papa’s response to the challenge of creating an authentic yet inclusive marae for the 21st century. The name of the pictured marae is Te Hono ki Hawaiki, which means the link with the ancestral homelands. The carvings depict the ancestors who make this living link.
Te Aurere Iti (the name of the waka — war canoe — pictured above) is a one-third scale replica of the waka hourua Te Aurere, built by master navigator. Hekenukumai Busby. He made the replica for Te Papa’s opening – to inspire connections to our ancestor and their voyages, now and into the future. The waka (war canoe) is made of tõtara wood (hull), muka fibre (sails and ropes), and sennit (coconut-husk fibre cord) – purchased by the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa) in 1997.
Although we did not take any photographs in the newest temporary exhibition (opened in April 2024), Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War, we found it very educational and realistic in telling the story of the first World War I battles fought by the combined Australian and New Zealand army forces (known as “ANZAC”), from 19 February 1915 to 9 January 1916. The battles were all fought along the waterfront of the Dardanelles, a little south of Istanbul (Constantinople), with the objective of creating a passage through the Dardanelles by taking control of the Ottoman Straits and then exposing Constantinople to naval battleship gunfire. The heaviest fighting in Gallipoli was from May, with the landing at Anzac Cove, to the summer of 1915, with horrific losses (for New Zealand) in the Battle of Chunuk Bair in August, among others. For readers not familiar with this horrific series of battles, the campaign was a disaster for the ANZAC forces — with approximately 250,000 casualties — who were beaten by the local Turks (defending their homeland). The Turks had joined sides earlier in World War I with the Germans against the Entente powers, Britain (and its Commonwealth nations), France and the Russian Empire.
“The campaign became the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli, as founder and president. The campaign is often considered to be the beginning of Australian and New Zealand national consciousness. The anniversary of the landings, 25 April, is known as ANZAC Day, the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in the two countries, surpassing Remembrance Day (Armistice Day).” — Wikipedia
“Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War combines the world of museums with the world-class creative artistry of Weta Workshop to immerse you in the eight-month Gallipoli campaign. The ground-breaking exhibition tells the story through the eyes and words of eight ordinary New Zealanders who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances. Each is captured frozen in a moment of time on a monumental scale – 2.4 times human size. The giant sculptures took a staggering 24,000 hours to create, and countless hours were spent researching their rich histories. Cutting-edge technology was also used to create 3-D maps and projections, miniatures, models, dioramas, and a range of interactive experiences that bring New Zealand’s Gallipoli story to life. In total, 2,779 Kiwis lost their lives on Gallipoli, and many others were scarred forever. Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War takes you to the core of this defining event.” — www.tepapa.govt.nz/visit/exhibitions/gallipoli-scale-our-war
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